The Latest on Quentin Tarantino's Next, Kill Bill

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By Brian Zoromski

It's been nearly four years since Quentin Tarantino's last film, the Elmore Leonard novel adaptation Jackie Brown, and we still have a while to wait for Tarantino's next film, Kill Bill. As reported a few months ago, Quentin conceived and wrote the project with Uma Thurman in mind for the lead role, and now that Uma is with child, the production has decided to wait until she's ready to work. But all that hasn't stopped QT from finishing the script and talking about who he'd like to have involved, while other bits about the project have popped up on the 'Net.

As the project currently stands, only two actors are considered to be definitely attached to Kill Bill: Uma, who will portray the main character, "The Bride," a top female assassin who is betrayed and nearly killed by her fellow assassins, after which she swears revenge; and Warren Beatty, who will portray the titular character of Bill, the "world's greatest assassin" (as described in AICN's script review) and former employer of "The Bride."

Shortly after the Kill Bill production decided they were going to wait for Uma, rumors swirled that Lucy Liu would replace her in the lead role. Not true, Quentin told Harry Knowles over at Ain't It Cool News in August. Tarantino told Harry that he had written a small role specifically for Lucy Liu into the film, and that Quentin had dinner with Lucy to talk to her about the scene, and someone must have assumed Liu was up for Uma's role. Liu has yet to commit to or sign for the project.

At the IFP Gotham Awards in New York earlier this month, Tarantino reportedly mentioned to Fox 411's Roger Friedman that he had Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, TV's Vengeance Unlimited) in mind for a role.

The cover of the VHS version of The Street Fighter, complete with a quote from Quentin himself.

(Click to see a larger version.)

Early last week, Reuters news service talked to Tarantino about the project and he shared a few more of his plans. "It's not official and money hasn't changed any hands," Tarantino told Reuters, "but Yuen Woo-Ping will choreograph the Chinese kung fu action and Sonny Chiba will choreograph the samurai action." Most U.S. filmgoers will recognize Woo-Ping's name as the kung fu choreographer for The Matrix (he's also the action choreographer for its two sequels) but hardcore Hong Kong action fans will know Woo-Ping as the director of such modern kung fu classics as Drunken Master, Wing Chun and Iron Monkey (the recently re-released martial arts movie is one of Tarantino's favorite films). Sonny Chiba is best known as the star of the 1970s series of Street Fighter films (starting with The Street Fighter in '74). Quentin told Reuters that he intends for Thurman to be trained by Woo-Ping and Chiba, "where she will have to learn the kung fu animal styles."

Tarantino also told Reuters that he'll "also have Yuen and Sonny play parts in it." According to AICN, Chiba is up for a character named Hattori Hanzo, who is considered legendary for for his skill and craftmanship with samurai swords. AICN states that Woo-Ping would play "the mysterious 140 some-odd-year old Pei Mei" who reportedly trains "The Bride."

Most recently, Mr. Showbiz chatted with Tarantino about the project. When asked why he didn't recast Thurman, QT gave this explanation: "Because I wrote it for her. The reason I wanted to do that kind of movie, I wanted to see it with her. It was exciting [writing and thinking] of Uma's physicality, those long lanky legs and that blonde hair, and [her doing] animal-style kung fu or [using] the samurai-style sword." He also added this little tidbit of information: "She'll be wearing the yellow track suit of Bruce Lee from Game of Death." Whether he meant that literally or figuratively is anybody's guess.

So what exactly will Kill Bill be like? For the answer to that question, we turn to the aforementioned AICN script review. Quentin's described the film to Harry and Reuters as a combination of different film genres squeezed into a duck press. Among the many genres Tarantino drew inspiration from are kung fu flicks, samurai movies, spaghetti Westerns, 1960s spy thrillers, and tough-as-nails-women revenge films. The monstrous 222-page draft of the script that Harry Knowles reviewed reportedly detailed every nuance of the many fight scenes throughout the movie, which contributed heavily to its heft. The story starts with "The Bride" being turned upon, and the rest of the film introduces each of the other assassins, as "The Bride" moves to take out each one in revenge with her ultimate plan being to "kill Bill."

The film, as described so far, sounds much more action-intensive than anything Tarantino has done to date, straying away from the dialogue-heavy, fast-talking character studies of his early work. Whether he'll be able to pull it all off remains to be seen, and we have quite a while to wait to find out. Tarantino told AICN in August that he plans to have the combat training start in March 2002, and that they'll start shooting in June in locations including Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico, Texas, and Los Angeles. It's unknown whether the production is still on schedule for those dates. In any case, we'll continue to follow developments of the project here on IGN FilmForce.